


Origins of the Dreambender

by ScribblingRagamuffin



Series: Transcendence AU [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence, Gen, Transcendence AU, origin fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-01 02:33:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2756318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribblingRagamuffin/pseuds/ScribblingRagamuffin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world around him was all dark and gray and colorless. Though, that could be because his eyes were shut tight from the pain. Bill was shoving his way into his mind, pushing harder and harder. He hadn't felt like this the last time his body was possessed, but that could be because last time, Bill had had the courtesy to pull Dipper out before going in.<br/>But Bill was out of time and he knew it.<br/>For just a moment, Dipper can feel Bill's desperation, his fear of being swallowed up. His own magic was turning on him, and he was almost begging that he be able to possess Dipper. But he'd underestimated just how much Dipper loved his family, his town, and his moral compass.<br/>Dipper forced Bill out of his mind, reducing the pain double fold. Dipper breathed in- then collapsed out of mental and physical exhaustion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue/Chapter 1

 

The world around him was all dark and gray and colorless. Though, that could be because his eyes were shut tight from the pain. Bill was shoving his way into his mind, pushing harder and harder. He hadn't felt like this the last time his body was possessed, but that could be because last time, Bill had had the courtesy to pull Dipper out before going in.

But Bill was out of time and he knew it.

For just a moment, Dipper can feel Bill's desperation, his fear of being swallowed up. His own magic was turning on him, and he was almost begging that he be able to possess Dipper. But he'd underestimated just how much Dipper loved his family, his town, and his moral compass.

Dipper forced Bill out of his mind, reducing the pain double fold. Dipper breathed in- then collapsed out of mental and physical exhaustion.

* * *

 

When Dipper woke up, he was still in the clearing.

“What...?” He sat up, looking around. It seemed barely different from before, as though there hadn't been a showdown between Bill and himself. Dipper stands up, brushing idly at his shorts to try and get any dirt off. What doesn't make sense is why he's still here. Wouldn't Stan, or Mabel, or even Wendy or Soos have found him? He glances around the clearing. He's still solid, his surroundings aren't gray, there's no reason for him to be all alone here. Except...

“Bill?” He calls, and his voice cracks from disuse. How long was he out? Bill doesn't answer, the stupid dorito. After such a showdown, he would at least show up to taunt Dipper a bit, right? Making a decision, he sets off to where he thinks the shack is. Probably. His sense of direction isn't all that good at the moment.

He's been walking for about ten minutes and is starting to think that he might have chosen the wrong way after all when he hears Stan's hoarse voice calling, “Dipper!”

“Here!” He calls back, relieved to have found him. There's no sound of recognition though, no sudden crashing into his path.

“Grunkle Stan?” Maybe he can't hear him. Dipper rambles through the underbrush to where he thinks Stan's voice came from. He ends up rolling down a hill.

“Owww...” he groans, looking down at the bushes he tumbled through. There aren't any snapped sticks, or a leaf out of place.

“What the-” there's the sound of a twig snapping sharply behind him and he turns, the untouched greenery out of his mind for the moment. Grunkle Stan's there, dressed in his customary suit and fez.

“Grunkle Stan!” Dipper says, rushing over. Stan doesn't react. He just peers around at the clearing before sighing. He turns around and trudges back the way he came. Dipper follows curiously. There's got to be a legitimate reason for him ignoring him. Or he just can't see him. Maybe if Dipper can just get to the journal, he can figure it out.

It doesn't take long for the two of them to reach the Mystery Shack. Turns out, Dipper was going the complete opposite way. Though, it had led him to Grunkle Stan, so he'd gotten where he needed to be. The Shack is a little beaten up, not as bad as it's been in the past, like when Gideon had demolished it. Most of the fighting had been in the dreamscape. And when Bill's plan had been thwarted, the fighting had been in Dipper's mind.

“Stan!” Wendy's rushing out of the Shack, meeting Stan in the parking lot,

“Did you find him?”

“No,” Stan sighs, and Dipper gapes.

“Guys, I'm right here!”

“Where could he be?” Wendy grumbles, turning to walk in tandem to the Shack.

“Dipper!” Mabel runs out of the Shack at full speed, skidding to a stop in front him.

“Mabel!” Dipper says, letting out a breath of relief. He'd barely realized that he'd been worried about Mabel. Of course, that's probably because it's the nagging sort of feeling that's always in the back of his mind.

“I didn't find him, Mabel,” Grunkle Stan says, looking as forlorn as his stern face can.

“But he's right there!” Mabel says, turning to Stan while gesturing to Dipper.

“Mabel-” Wendy starts, then gets cut off by Mabel stamping her foot.

“Dipper, can't you prove it to them? With the sock puppet or something?”

“Didn't we get rid of that Mabel?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess we did,” She sighs.

“What do you mean the sock puppet?” Wendy asks, and Mabel shrugs.

“Last time Dipper was invisible, he used a sock puppet to communicate,” she explains, “I don't know why only I can see him now though.”

“Both of these times had to do with Bill,” Dipper points out, then pauses, “What happened with that by the way?”

“With Bill?” Mabel asks, and Stan bursts in with an explanation,

“After we foiled him in not letting him merge the dreamscape and the physical world, he kind of just left. That's when Dipper, or,” he pauses awkwardly, “you, disappeared.” Dipper mulls over this information, leaning back and crossing his legs.

“Um, Dipper?” Mabel asks, looking at him oddly, “Why are you floating?”

“What?” Dipper looks down, processes that he's floating, then falls down with a thud. He stands up and brushes off his clothes.

“What the heck?” He asks, looking around.

“He's floating?” Wendy asks, and Mabel nods.

“Wait,” Stan says, looking at both Wendy and Mabel and just a bit to the right of Dipper, “He's possessed by Bill, then disappears. Now he suddenly shows up and only Mabel can see him and she says he's floating. Either she's gone crazy with loss, or something weird is going on.”

“When isn't something weird going on?” Dipper groans, and Stan laughs. The twins both turn to look at him and he shrugs.

“It seemed like one of those times when Dipper would say a one liner.” Dipper blinked. Then slapped a hand to his face. “This isn't helping. Mabel, Where's the journal?”

“Uhhh, Dipper... Not that I don't trust you, but you did get possessed by Bill, then randomly appear and float.” “Yeah, yeah. I get it,” Dipper grumbles, and heads to the shack.

“Dipper!” Mabel calls out, watching him walk, maybe float, off. His steps are suspiciously light, “Ugh. Why does he choose now to be all angsty and weird?”

“Mabel, where is the book anyway?” Wendy asks, and Mabel waves off the question.

“Oh, it's just upstairs in the attic where he left it.”

“And you don't see a problem with that.” It takes a moment for it to sink in.

“Oooh.”

“Yeah.”

* * *

 

Dipper opens the door to the attic room, wincing at the loud creaking noise it makes. He'll have to fix that soon. He walks to his desk and tries to pull out the chair to sit on it, but his hand just kind of moves through it. He sighs, then sits reluctantly on the desk. The room doesn't seem to have changed at all. Dipper's still not sure how long he's been gone, but it can't have been too long. There's no accumulated dust on his things, and he's sure that particular speck glitter was there the last time he was here.

Suddenly, he realizes that the book must still be where he left it. He steps down from the desk and walks to his bed, where, yep, the book is still sitting open to a page on Bill Cipher. He climbs onto the bed and looks down at the book. His eyes skim the content, looking for anything relevant to his current situation. Unfortunately, it was more a page of various facts about Bill than anything. Not much to help. He reaches down to turn a page, and slowly gets engulfed by the book again. He'd practically memorized it's words, but it's almost a comfort factor to read them again. He can't read some pages, due to his lack of a black light, but it's pretty much fine. He cant find anything on his current problem, which is stupid. There's nothing about being possessed by a demon then being invisible and somewhat incorporeal.

He's still reading in the light of the flickering light bulb when Mabel comes in. the door doesn't creak as she enters. (It always did like her better.) But from the slight movement in the corner of his eye, Dipper can tell she's in here.

“Hey Mabel,” he says, not looking up from the book.

“Um. Hi, Dipper,” she says, pauses for a moment, then continues, “Why are you upside-down?”

“What?” Dipper finally looks up from the book and yup, Mabel looks like she's hanging off the ceiling.

“Oh, whoops,” He says. With a bit of effort, he manages to get himself right side up. He's still floating, but he's not sure that if he tried to stop, it would actually work. Seems to be a natural response.

“Sorry, Shooting Star,” he says, closing the book and putting it in his lap. Mabel stiffens, and he blinks at her.

“Dipper...” she asks, taking an almost minute step back from him,

“Are you alright?”

“I guess?” he replies, “What kind of question is that?”

“You're glowing just a bit, well, blue.”

He looks down at himself, and yup wow, she's right. He squints at himself for a moment, then shrugs.

“Is that a problem?” He untangles his limbs and slowly float-walks over to her until he's standing a foot or two away, a yard at most.

“Well, um, no,” she fumbles over her words, which isn't like her at all, and he can kind of tell that she's nervous, and is she glowing a neon orange color?

“It's just,” she continues, “Well, you've never exactly floated, or glowed blue, or called me shooting star before. That's all kind of Bill stuff.” He cocks his head to the side like a bird as he takes in her statement.

“Huh. I guess you're right.” He turns around and heads back to the bed where the book has fallen onto the comforter. He picks it up, and somewhat subconsciously resumes his reading position from before.

“Hey, Mabel? Could you ask Grunkle Stan if he'd lend me the two other books? There's not a lot in here on demons in general, which might help.”

“Right,” she drags out the word. He can tell her eyes are on him, and just to freak her out a bit, he looks up from his book and grins at her. Her face doesn't change a whole lot, but that orange color around her is streaked with a dark gross color of green. He goes back to his book, and her footsteps are quick enough and loud enough that he can hear her bang all the way down the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

It takes far too long for Dipper to realize exactly what he's done. He just freaked out Mabel. There's a part of him that doesn't realize what's wrong still, but now he's having to keep himself from literally flying out the window and just taking off. How could he do that? Maybe they're right, there's got to be something he's missing. Maybe Bill messed with his head or something. Or maybe...

He's not sure what prompts it, but he pulls out his hand and stares at it for a moment. It's barely even glowing blue, not like the blue flames from when Bill made a deal. He concentrates on that thought, looking at the palm of his hand, and doesn't wish exactly, just thinks very very hard. His hand bursts into blue flames. He gazes at it for probably about five minutes before it extinguishes. Then he calmly stands up, and walks out of the room.

Dipper doesn't realize he's walked through the door until he's through it, but then he just shrugs and ignores it. He reaches the main area of the shack, where Wendy is sitting on the counter-top, seemingly reading a magazine. Her eyes aren't moving rapidly back and forth across the page though. She's faking. He ignores her and walks to the TV room, where he might be able to find Mabel and Stan. That seems to be where they have their meaningful conversations.

He guesses correctly and finds them arguing. Though it may be just a conversation. Neither of them look incredibly combative, but they also aren't just talking about a random thing.

“-I really want to trust him, but it's so weird!” Mabel says, gesturing wildly with her arms.

“I can't even see him, Mabel, how do you think I feel!” Stan yells, then rubs at his face with his hand, “Look, something has to have happened. I don't think I can give him the books, but he can keep the third. I'll check the first two, then if I can't find anything, maybe I'll let him look at them.”

“I guess that's the most I can ask. But I want to look through them too!” Mabel says, staring him right in the face.

“Fine."

Dipper chooses this moment to enter the room.

“Hey Mabel,” he says, realizing that, if he's floating, there's no way he can make noise to alert her of his presence other than talking.

“Oh. Hey, Dipper.” She's still frightened, watching him carefully. Stan turns to stare not at him, but near enough to him that he can brush it off.

“Watch this,” he says, bringing up his hand. He focuses yet again, then manages to bring up the blue flame. She jumps, and stares at him. He shrugs, and the flames are extinguished.

“There's got to be something about it being Bill. I've gotten too many weird powers to do with him for it to not,” he says, and she nods.

“Can someone fill me in?” Stan asks, and Mabel turns to him.

“Well, you know how Bill could make one of his hands flame blue before a deal? Dipper just did that.”

Dipper could swear Stan's face lost all blood at that statement. Stan turned to face his approximate spot, and Dipper realizes he's reclining on the air at the moment. He disregards this fact and lets Mabel ask her question.

“Grunkle Stan? There's got to be a reason you're so freaked out.”

“Well, Since Bill is gone, and Dipper's gotten his powers... It's possible he's a demon now.”

They all freeze. Then Dipper laughs and floats so that he's on his back.

“I suppose that makes sense.”

“Dipper!” Mabel chastises, “How can you be so nonchalant about this?”

“Probably because if I am a demon, there's nothing I can do about it and I might just be repressing my emotions and I'll have a panic attack later.”

“Right.” she turns to Stan again, who's looking a bit confused, “Wouldn't he know if he was a demon?”

“Well, he should,” Grunkle Stan replies slowly, “But there's never been anyone who was a human and then got a dream demon's powers before.” Mabel glances over at Dipper, then freezes.

“Dipper, what happened to your eyes?”

“What?” he asks, then floats over to the black reflective screen of the TV. His face glints in the light, and he doesn't look all that different, if not for the black retina and vivid gold irises.

“Oh. That's a little weird. I'm assuming it wasn't like that before?”

“If it was, I would've mentioned it, Dipper!”

“Huh. Maybe it's because I didn't know I was a demon?”

“That doesn't make any sense, Dipper.”

“It's demon magic, of course it doesn't. Bill can word a deal just right to screw people over, do you think it makes sense? No.”

“But, you wouldn't do that right?” Mabel asks, suddenly nervous, “You wouldn't screw someone over.” He contemplates for a moment, then shrugs.

“Not if they didn't deserve it.”

She blinks, and he kind of gets that while that probably wasn't the answer she was looking for, she'll take it.

“I'm going to go float to the middle of the woods and see if I can practice any other demony powers.” Dipper announces, and Mabel nods stiffly. He grins, pokes her in the shoulder, then floats away. He's not exactly acting normal, is he? But hey, at least he has an excuse.

*~*

Dipper's current way of moving is remarkably convenient. He ends up over a random clearing. Taking a moment to think about what he wants to do, he floats down to the ground, still not quite touching it. It's probably not a good idea to try. If he can float through doors and stuff, probably not best to go down to the core of the earth or something accidentally. From his spot in the middle of the clearing, he closes his eyes and concentrates. Bill had a circle that summoned him, right? Wouldn't Dipper have one as well, wouldn't all demons?

After a minute or so of concentrating and feeling just a bit ridiculous, Dipper opens his eyes to peek at the ground around him. Yup there it is, just as he'd pictured it. He's not sure if it turned out that way because he pictured it like that, or if he pictured it like that because it turned out like that. Conundrums. It's drawn in the dirt of the ground in front of him, and he walks around it, inspecting it from every angle. It's very similar to Bill's, with some triangles, some symbols- such as a shooting star- but it only has a few sections instead of however many Bill had. The symbols must represent important people. Dipper had been represented as a pine tree in Bill's, and Mabel as a shooting star. He could pick out a few, the symbol from Grunkle Stan's hat, the shooting star, the question mark, things like that. He couldn't figure out what the ax could be, but it'll show up later in his life. However long that maybe now.

He frowns, realizing that, yes, he is a demon, and demons live forever. Or practically forever. Bill Cipher obviously didn't but he sure lived a long time. That was obvious. Also, what would the repercussions of him previously being a human be? Grunkle Stan had mentioned that there aren't any demons who were human, so how did he happen, and what would happen? It's a puzzle.

He pushes those thoughts out of his head and focuses on his next task. Becoming corporeal. Bill could do it right? So he should be able to. He just has to figure out a way for him to channel his own magic. He does his focusing thing again, and nothing happens. He sighs, then decides that maybe the time to try being corporeal isn't right now. Maybe right now, he should try to figure out how to not have to focus so hard for things to happen. Bill could just snap his fingers or point and something would happen. He should probably also stop comparing himself to Bill. Not exactly a good starter, as Bill was a maniac who wanted to merge the dreamscape and the physical world. Seems he failed at that, but managed to merge his magic with Dipper's consciousness.

He crosses his legs and sits in the meditative pose that you always see in movies. He doesn't try any of the humming stuff, he feels ridiculous enough as it is. He closes his eyes and tries to become aware of his surroundings without having to try too hard. It comes slowly, and eventually he can hear the slightest movement of a leaf, a sign of an animal shuffling around. When he realizes that the light shining through his eyelids has dimmed substantially, he opens his eyes and looks around. From the low light, he can see that the sun is just setting over the tops of the trees. It must be around seven or eight o'clock. The sun's setting earlier as it nears the end of August. He unfolds his legs and stretches, though it doesn't do anything. He doesn't feel stiff at all, and his muscles don't stretch at the movement. Actually, he can barely feel anything at all, not even a breeze.

_Pain is hilarious_ , he remembers Bill saying. Well, he can almost identify with that now. As he remembers the sensation of pain, it's not like he would savor it, but after centuries of nothing? Yeah, any sort of sensation would be good. He turns to where his circle still sits, and after concentrating for a moment, wipes it out. It wouldn't be safe to just leave it there. Anyone could find it and know how to summon him.

Dipper gets back to the Shack faster than he thought he would, and no one's out there waiting for him. A thought worms it's way into his mind that maybe they didn't want him to come back, but he ignores it. If they didn't, they would be out here waiting for him with weapons, right?

He goes into the shack and finds that Wendy isn't at the counter. The Shack's hours aren't over yet, but maybe she decided to go home? He stops for a second to see if his practice helped at all, and yes, he can hear the TV. He wouldn't have before, but now he can just barely. It's some news showing, he can tell by the music and the voices. He heads to the TV room. Everyone's crowded around the TV, and he feels a moment of nostalgia for when he and Mabel would sit with Grunkle Stan and watch crappy television, but he freezes at their expressions and their... colors? He'd have to figure out what those were.

“What?” He asks Mabel, and she looks up from the screen.

“Dipper. There are demons and monsters appearing everywhere.”

“What?” he asks again, more urgently now, floating over to look at the screen.

“When Bill started his spell he merged a tiny, tiny sliver of the mindscape with Gravity falls,” Stan explains, staring right through Dipper at the TV, “And when we defeated him...”

“We must have spread that tiny sliver all over the Earth,” Wendy finishes. Soos hasn't said anything to Dipper all day. He's either confused or no one's told him. He wasn't there when they first found Dipper.

“What are you wearing, anyway?” Mabel asks, looking up from the TV. Dipper looks down. He's wearing an old fashioned suit with a vest and everything. He reaches his hand up, and yup, there's a floating top hat there.

“I have no idea,” he answers truthfully, and Mabel shrugs.

“How are there demons everywhere?” he asks, landing so that he's on the ground next to Mabel, “they have to be summoned first.”

“I don't know. There just are.” There's a moment when Dipper tunes out the conversation as Mabel explains Dipper's question to Grunkle Stan, and Dipper watches the crappy iPhone videos of the carnage wreaked by the supernatural.

“Kids like to pretend to summon demons,” Stan explains, and Dipper looks up, “they do it for dares, because they want a deal, whatever. It's just never had the consequences it does now before.”

“They probably aren't even using good supplies,” Dipper grumbles, then stops. Why would he care?

“Dipper...” Mabel starts, and he looks at her, “If you're a demon, couldn't you be summoned?”

He shakes his head.

“No one knows what my circle looks like yet,” he explains.

“Dipper, do you have your own summoning circle?” Stan asks, looking down at the spot next to Mabel Dipper's been known to take. Dipper nods, and lets Mabel relay that he does.

“Huh," Grunkle Stan contemplates, "It's interesting that you're not some lower demon. Plenty of slug demons share a circle. You call for one, you could get any. A demon with a particular circle though. That's a different sort of class.”

“Anyway,” Grunkle Stan stands up, his joints popping, “That's enough of that.”

He turns off the TV and says, “You kids should get to bed.”

“Make sure to look in the books!” Mabel says, and after he walks off, they all sort of clear out. Wendy leaves without a word to Dipper or Mabel, and then Mabel heads up to the attic room, Dipper following along behind her.

“I don't think I need to sleep,” Dipper tells her, and she nods.

“Just, if you do, don't be stubborn about it. That's not going to help.”

While she gets ready for bed, he floats in a corner of the room and makes sure she doesn't start weeping or something. She's prone to doing that sometimes, and it's been a long day.

“Goodnight Dipper,” she says, and he replies quietly,

“Goodnight Mabel.” She drifts off to sleep and he sighs, watching her. Then he resumes his position from earlier and begins to meditate again, focusing on the soft in and out of Mabel's breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is up later than I intended because people actually acknowledged and liked the first chapter which was surprising and all of a sudden I got really concerned that the second wouldn't be up to par. So that's it, just me being stupid, here's the second chapter. Hopefully the third will be up after Christmas. Happy Holidays!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind that there are no rules. Or, there are probably rules, but I choose to ignore them. This doesn't really follow the story line that they talk about in the actual au, I wrote this right after I learned about the au. It's an au of an au. Or something.

The days slowly move on, and they try everywhere to find things to help Dipper. The most they can get are books on how to channel your magic. They do help some, but they're made for humans, and don't quite work the same way. It's a week before the two of them, Mabel and Dipper, have to go home. They haven't exactly told their parents what happened. They're frantic enough without having to worry about their son. Grunkle Stan's had to reassure them more than once that the two of them are fine, but they insisted on coming to pick them up rather than letting them take a bus. Dipper is meditating one day in the main area of the shack when Mabel runs in.

“Dipper!”

“Ah! Mabel!”

He falls to the ground with a thump, then looks up in shock.

“OMG, Dipper. You're touching the ground.”

“I noticed.” He stands up, and as a test, tries to pick up a cup. He can. He can also feel the cool ceramic against his palm.

“You can pick things up too!” Mabel squeals. At that moment, Wendy enters the room.

“Holy shit, Dipper?”

“Wendy? What-” At that moment, the mug falls from his grip and clatters to the counter. When he reaches for it again, his hand passes through it.

“Okay, Mabel, I could swear I saw Dipper right there just a second ago,” Wendy says, pointing to where Dipper is floating now, staring at the mug.

“He's still there,” Mabel assures her, “he's just not solid anymore.”

“Well, how did he get solid?” Wendy asks, and Dipper sighs.

“I don't know.”

* * *

 

They try later to explain to Grunkle Stan what happened, but the info doesn't help at all. Dipper couldn't even make his hand glow for hours after that, he was magically exhausted.

“It just doesn't make any sense!” He complains to Mabel from his corner of the ceiling, “No other demon can be corporeal without making a deal! Not even Bill! Why would I be able to?”

“We don't know, Dipper,” she says gently. She says everything more gently now and is generally more cautious. He hates to think it's his fault, but it definitely is. Wendy tries more to talk to him now that she's seen him and now's he's there. It's still kind of weird, with Mabel translating everything, but it's nice to at least be acknowledged.

“Dude, do you wear that suit all of the time?” she asked one time, and Mabel gave her the answer. Of course he did. Would she rather him wear normal clothes that get dirty so easily or demon clothes that he doesn't have to worry about? That is an easy choice.

“Don't you get uncomfortable?” Soos asked, and Dipper just replied,

“Uhh, no?”

To be honest, he's not sure he remembers what feeling uncomfortable is like. He doesn't have nearly as much sensory input as he used to, if any. He's really starting to understand why Bill was so confused and fascinated by his body.

Dipper begins to stock up on his magic, not using it too often, hoping that when his parents come to pick him up, he'll be able to be corporeal for a minute or two. That would be great. If they can see him, they'll be more open to having people explain, rather than just brushing it off. The whole “Transcendence” thing as people are calling it, really rattled them. They keep asking to skype call with the twins, but they talk about not having good enough internet, blah blah blah. Stan even tried to convince them to let them stay there with him for the school year. They'd refused, obviously, and worried even more. The great-uncle who'd complained so much about taking them in the first place asking them to stay longer? Something was up.

The Thursday before the school year started arrived and their parents arrived. They'd packed up their stuff the night before, and Mabel had cried.

“I don't want to go. That'll make it real.” Dipper hadn't asked what would be real, but he rubbed her back and let her cry.

“Hey, don't worry. They can't even see me. I can go back and forth for you and tell you how everyone is. You can text them beforehand so they'll know I'm there. We've got everyone's email addresses, you can email them. It'll be fine, Mabel.”

She cried a bit more and hugged him tight. He wished he could feel her warmth.

Their parents pulled up to the Mystery Shack, looking for all the world like two tourists for Grunkle Stan to swindle. Dipper half wished they were.

“Oh Mabel honey,” their mom pulled Mabel into her arms and Mabel clutched at her. Then she took a step back and their mom asked,

“Where's Dipper, sweetie? I can see his stuff, but not him. Where's he at?”

“You should probably come inside,” Mabel said, and their mother looked suspicious, but grabbed their father's hand and the two of them followed Mabel inside. Mabel's colors, which Dipper had come to realize were feelings, were that bright nervous orange and a deep sad purple. He floated alongside her until they came to the main living area where Stan, Wendy, and Soos were all waiting. Soos had been filled in and was somehow the best of them at looking directly at Dipper when he was talking. It was actually pretty creepy.

“Uncle Stan, what's going on?” their dad asks, and Grunkle Stan starts to answer, then stops again.

“You know, I'm not sure even I know. Mabel's the best to ask.” Their parents round on Mabel who glares at Stan.

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus,” she grumbles, then cowers under their parents glare. Dipper decides that he's had enough. He focuses, then drops solidly to the ground behind them.

“I'm right here,” he says, and they turn to look at him. His father's mouth drops and their mother presses a hand to her mouth. The image of seeing your 12 year old son with black eyes and wearing a suit must be an odd one.

“What on earth...”

“Well, not exactly earth,” Dipper quips, “More like the dreamscape.” Then he winces,

“I can't hold this for long, but please, just listen to what they say?”

“Dipper, you can explain this for yourself!” His mother says, stamping her foot.

“No, I really can't.”

He starts losing his grip on the solid earth, and he can tell he flickers in and out, as Wendy reported he did last time. Then he drops out entirely and starts floating again.

“Dipper Pines!” His father yells, looking around, and Dipper just sighs.

“Just tell them Mabel,” he says, and she nods.

“You know the transcendence? That was kind of our fault,” she starts, and their parents cease in their search for Dipper to gape at her.

“Young lady-” her mother starts, but Stan cuts in,

“It wasn't their fault. If anything, they stopped it from being even worse than it already is. It would've blown a chunk out of the Earth if they hadn't.”

Their mother's face pales, and Dipper just watches.

“What does this have to do with Dipper?” Dad asks, and Stan sighs,

“There was a demon involved. He'd possessed Dipper before, and on the brink of his destruction from his own magic, he tried to save himself by possessing Dipper again. Fortunately, he didn't pull Dipper out first. Dipper fought him off, and now as far as we can tell, he's a demon. Mabel's the only one who can see him.”

“And you expect us to believe this?” Mother hisses, and Mabel bursts out,

“We expect you to trust me!”

“If this is true, if he is a demon, he's dangerous!” their father argues, “We can't with a good conscious let him into our home.”

“How would you ever know he was there?” Wendy asks, speaking up for the first time in this family argument, “Do you really believe that you could keep him away from Mabel?”

“We'll do what we have to.” their father replies stiffly, and Mabel gasps. There's a moment of silence. Then the walls slowly start to bleed.

“Dipper?” Mabel asks, and when she turns to look at him, she finds him curled up in a ball, clutching at his head.

“What- What's going on. Stop this!” their mother screeches, but Mabel ignores her as she rushes over to the ball that Dipper is.

“Dipper, it's okay, it's okay. She says, rubbing his back. His hair is clutched in his fists as he tries to calm down. They would try to keep him from Mabel? Let them try, nothing can keep him from his twin star. Wait. What?

“He's a menace, he's threatening us!” Their mother frets, and Soos says from his spot in an armchair,

“Well, to be fair, you threatened him first.”

“Well, that-” she splutters, but no one is paying attention to the two of them anymore. Mabel slowly calms Dipper down, and he uncurls, her muttering words of encouragement. The walls slowly stop oozing blood and things turn relatively normal again.

“Fine,” their father says, “We'll let him in the house, and him stay with Mabel. But we will not acknowledge him as our son.” Dipper feels a surge of power, and suddenly he's corporeal again, flaming blue. He reaches out his hand.

“Then we have a deal?” He asks, smiling, and his dad looks frightened beyond belief. Then he seems to steel himself, and he grasps his demonic son's hand. “Deal.” Dipper becomes incorporeal once more but he doesn't feel tired from his spell as a real being. Everyone in the room looks shaken. Hearing of demon deals is one thing. Seeing one, is another.

“Well, Dipper, Mr. Pines,” Wendy says, “You just made your first deal.”

Dipper laughs at that, and his dad flinches like he could hear him.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in two days after binge watching Gravity Falls and reading a lot about the transcendence au. Also, I have exams, and instead of studying, I did this. Teachers don't check what you're doing when you're typing.


End file.
